Cellular mobile operators are using more spectrum bands and increasingly more spectrum within each band in order to satisfy growing subscriber traffic demands, and for the deployment of new radio access technologies, in particular Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced radio access technology. Cellular sites therefore need base station antenna solutions which can support multiple spectrum bands. Most cellular operators who have multiple bands often group these into low-band spectrum bands and high-band spectrum bands. For instance, in Europe, the 800 MHz and 900 MHz bands are typically classed as low-band spectrum bands, whereas 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz and 2600 MHz are typically classed as high-band spectrum bands.
Cellular networks use a variety of base station and antenna solutions depending upon the physical environment, the radio channel environment, radio frequency (RF) power, service coverage and capacity requirements. Base station sites are often classified into for example, macro-cell, micro-cell, small cell, indoor cell, Distributed Antenna System (DAS), etc. Macro-cell sites are designed for wider area coverage and typically have sectorized panel antenna arrays with a directive main beam to obtain necessary gain, and which are located above the average height of the surrounding buildings.